Thanksgiving with Gaudi

The most visited tourist site in Barcelona is the unfinished cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia. We visited it, of course, the day we arrived by “Ave” high speed train from Madrid, but that's another story. Note to architecture fans – the hyperlinks in this article amplify the story greatly, take a look.

We set out on foot on a pleasantly cool, sunny Thanksgiving morning from the lovely Hotel Constanza at Calle Bruc, 33 where we stayed the three days we were in Barcelona. Fortified with Cafe Solo (aka the best expresso you will ever taste) we strolled slowly up Passeig de Gracia through the heart of the Eixample district. This is one of the major avenues in the city. To my eye it seems a more beautiful, cleaner, classier version of NYC's 5^th Avenue. It is lined with plane trees, ornate benches and art nouveau street lights. At this time of the morning the street was busy with extremely well-dressed pedestrians on the way to work. The sidewalks are even paved with beautiful art nouveau tiles.

In short order we came to the so-called “Block of Discord.” This entire district is filled with beautiful late 19^th Century architecture, but this block is special because it includes two famous modernista buildings, Casa Amatller and Casa Lleo Morera. It's called the block of discord because of the way the modernista buildings contrast with their more sober neighbors and with Gaudi's wilder, tile-covered Casa Batllo. Casa Batlló is a complete redesign of an existing 1877 building done by Gaudi and his collaborators in 1904 – 1906. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as the facade has a something of a skeletal, organic quality with a dragon scale roof.

We stopped for a while to admire the beauty of the place. We decided to walk a bit further up the avenue and tour Gaudi's Casa Mila, then return to tour Casa Batllo.

Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (meaning the 'The Quarry'), was designed and built by Gaudi between 1905 and 1910 for a wealthy family who lived on the ground floor and rented out large apartments on the upper floors. The facade and roof are famous for the undulating, organic look. The complementary wrought iron balconies and windows were designed by Josep Maria Jujol, who also created the interior plaster ceilings.

Architecturally, La Pedrera is considered an innovative work for its early use of structural steel and its self-supporting curtain walls. Other innovative elements were the construction of underground car parking and separate lifts and stairs for the owners and their servants. The building is currently owned and operated by Catalunya Caixa, a private educational foundation. The building tour starts with the incredible roof, moves down to an interesting Gaudi museum in the arched attic, then finishes in a restored apartment with its original art nouveau interior and furnishings. We were there for hours.

Outside again in the now warm mid-day sun, we paused across the street so Merry could take a couple of photographs of the facade. A well-dressed woman approached us.

“Es beautiful, si, no?”

We struck up a conversation with her in Spanglish. She enquired whether we had toured Casa Batllo yet. When she found out that was where we were headed, she was adamant that we should not pay to tour the building. We understood her to say that the tour was less interesting than at Casa Mila. Further she insisted we could get a very good view of the back of the building with its intricate tiles, totally for free.

“For, free?”

“Si. Just turn right down the street right before the building, go into the big magazine, and … “

Wait a minute, magazine?  After thinking about it and being sure she couldn't think of any other word, I realized she was saying “magasin” – French for store. OK, so we turn down a side street, go into a store take the escalator to the second floor, remembering that in Europe the ground floor is floor 0, then wander through the aisles to the back, open a door and … well, we would have to see for ourselves.

We were a bit doubtful, but what the heck. We thanked the nice woman, and headed down the street. A department store existed. We found the right floor, then a fire door leading out onto a low roof. We looked around, no one was watching. Merry, always the brave one, pushed the door open, No alarm. Whew.

The roof outside is set up as the employees' smoking area with chairs and vending machines. The view of Casa Botlla is wonderful. Judge for yourself.

Fighting Fascism at the Museo Reina Sofia

By accident we approached the museum from the rear entrance between the 2005 glass and steel additions and the 18^th Century Sabatini building. As a result we found ourselves in a soaring courtyard with a giant whimsical sculpture in the center. We went immediately to the open plaza on the top floor and looked over the city of Madrid. We loved it. The Reina Sofia already had our hearts.

Above all the other art that can be seen in Madrid, I wanted to see Picasso's Guernica. I had seen it sometime in the early 1970s at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Picasso gave MOMA the painting for safe keeping in 1938. When I saw it, I was somewhat underwhelmed. It seemed poorly displayed, out of place and did not create the intense impact I expected.

Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 for the Spanish Pavilion of the World's Fair in Paris. At that time the Spanish Civil War was raging. The Spanish monarchy was dissolved in 1932 and an elected republican government established. The 1936 election swept a left-wing coalition, called the Popular Front, into power. Right-wing Nationalist forces attempted a failed coup d'etat in July 1936.

Led by General Francisco Franco, the Nationalist forces didn't give up. Open civil war broke out. The Spanish Civil War immediately became the symbol of the struggle between authoritarianism and progressive democracy. The war lasted until Franco's victory in April 1939, leaving up to half a million dead, many of them civilians. Franco obtained military support from Fascist Italy and Fascist Germany. The Popular Front received aide from the Soviet Union and France as well as many volunteer International Brigades.

During those times a life or death struggle raged throughout Europe between those who believed the state should be used to redistribute wealth and those who believed the state should defend the status quo. Giant Russia executed its monarchs, rejected its traditional ruling class and transformed into the Communist Soviet Union. Vested economic interests in the rest of Europe were more than a little concerned by this development. In the countries that had suffered the most from World War I, a new political force emerged that promised to solve the threat to stability posed by the communists and at the same time provide a modern social welfare state, Fascism.

In Germany and Italy Fascism proved quite popular and swept into power. Hitler and Mussolini quickly built massive military machines they justified by constantly referring to the threat of communism. In republican Spain, the Civil War became the focus of this battle for the soul of Europe.

On April 26, 1937 Franco arranged an air attack on a small Basque town to be carried out by his German and Italian allies. That town, Guernica, had no military significance. The Basques generally opposed Franco, and he wanted to show them how ruthless he could be. Carpet bombing totally destroyed the town and killed 1000 or more civilians. The era of total war had begun.

At the time of the bombing Picasso had already made plans for a different painting for the World's Fair. When he realized the enormity of what had happened in his country, he decided to take Guernica as his subject. Picasso said of the painting, “I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.” With Franco's victory, Picasso vowed never to set foot in his native Spain as long as Franco ruled.

After the Paris Exposition, Picasso arranged for Guernica to be held by the Museum of Modern Art but specified that it be returned to Spain should a democratic republic ever be established. The painting was finally returned to Spain in 1981 and hung at the Prado. In 1992 it was moved to its current home at the Museo Reina Sofia where it hangs in a special gallery. Adjourning galleries show about two dozen preparatory works and a series of photographs showing the mural as it was being painted.

We slowly wandered through the Reina Sofia taking in the astounding collection of 20^th Century Spanish art. Gradually the galleries filled with groups of school children. This museum has perhaps the finest collection of surrealism anywhere in the world, so the kids were quite well amused. Each class of about 25 kids were accompanied by a teacher who worked hard to keep them informed about what they were seeing and moving along.

Finally, we reached the painting I had come all this way to see again. The room is very large and dimly lit. The mural hangs alone on one whole wall. My first thought was how stark, how simply powerful it looked. Then to my initial dismay, a whole class of 8-year-olds filed into the gallery, briefly obstructing my view. Their teacher organized them on the floor about six feet from the painting. They quickly sat and quieted down.

For the next fifteen minutes their young teacher quietly spoke with the kids, gesturing occasionally at the painting. He spoke so softly I couldn't really hear him. The kids paid absolute attention. The gallery had become a side chapel in some great cathedral. The kids were in total awe.

Although I couldn't understand him, I knew the teacher was explaining the history of the Spanish Civil War, of Franco's authoritarian regime and of Fascism.

A hidden scar in the Spanish psyche was left by the decades of Franco's authoritarian rule. By now the elected government has done its best to remove all official recognition of Franco. Most government buildings and streets named for him have resumed their original names. The last statue of Franco in Spain was torn down in 2008.

Those who suffered under Franco live on, but do not recover. They hide the scar, but it will be with them for the rest of their lives. The only hope for the future is those kids on the floor in the Reina Sofia. I felt privileged to be present as they learned to live as free people.

Pickpockets

Merry and I arrived at the Madrid airport extremely bleary after a flight delay of four hours. We left home the day before at 9 am. Now it was noon the next day. Accounting for the time difference, we had been on the move almost non-stop for 21 hours with little sleep.

To get into the city from the airport we decided to ride the Metro. This involved a long walk through the airport, then two transfers between subway lines. We packed light but there were stairs and long hallways everywhere. At the end of the last transfer, a stranger appeared out of nowhere and tried to help me carry my suitcase down a short flight of a stairs. I managed to get him to let go just as a train pulled in. We hopped on at the last minute and found ourselves in a crush of passengers. When we got off at our station Mer discovered her backpack had been opened. A handbag bought for the trip but fortunately empty was stollen and her earring bag was missing.

We oriented ourselves and trudged to our hotel a bit shaken. Exhausted but safe we felt lucky to have carried all our money, credit cards and passports in our money belts. We reported the incident to the hotel desk, but they simply assured us we were lucky not to have lost more. We had planned to ride the Metro frequently in Madrid, but this episode made us change our minds.

A few days later we were walking in Barcelona in a nice neighborhood near the Sagrada Famillia. Suddenly we both realized our backs were wet. My pants and Mer's jacket were splattered all over with coffee. A guy rushed up to us with a handful of napkins and started to clean off the mess. He tried very hard to get us to go into his apartment where he claimed he would help us more. We both were aware enough to realize this was a scam. We pulled away. An older gentleman walked up and stopped to see what was happening. The first guy quickly disappeared. We walked around for the next few hours in spotted clothes that smelled strongly of coffee and creamora.

The desk clerk at our hotel told us this happens all the time. It turns out that throwing coffee, catsup or yogurt on clothes is a common scam. He suggested our best defense would have been to have thanked the guy for wanting to help and asked to take his picture.

We knew before making this trip that pickpockets and sneak thieves are common in Spain's large cities. We lost very little, but the psychological impact lasted throughout the trip. We always carried our valuables in money belts. We avoided crowds when possible and were always on guard. We had no further trouble. Everyone we met told us stories of their personal experiences with pickpockets, many of which were far worse than ours.

As I see it, the problem with the tactics used by sneak thieves is the reliance on the natural willingness people have to trust helpful strangers. When someone offers to help, my natural impulse is to be moved and thankful. This moment of relaxation is all a pickpocket needs to steal your wallet. As a consequence, in areas where pickpockets operate, a traveler needs to train themselves not to trust people who appear to be trying to be helpful. Is that seemingly nice guy who just offered to take your picture going to steal the camera?

I like to think I'm not naïve. I know there is a lot of poverty in the world. When I travel I know a certain portion of the people I encounter see me as nothing but an opportunity to make easy money. Nonetheless, pickpockets violate a trust that people ought to be able to count on no matter where they are in the world. Without that trust, travel is less enriching and more stressful. When we guard ourselves from open contact with the people in the country we visit, we miss the best part of the trip.

In the next few blog entries, I will share the stories of how we broke out of this distrust of strangers and found real adventure in Spain. Stay tuned.